Conservative Mayoral Candidate for London and Henley MP Boris Johnson was exposed as having a conflict of interest between his two roles when giving evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee Inquiry into ‘Policing in the 21^st Century’ on Tuesday 11^th March.

He was asked by Reading West MP, Martin Salter, where his loyalties lay over the issue of the aggressive recruitment of police officers from the Thames Valley and the other forces surrounding London by the Metropolitan Police.

Mr Salter asked the Henley MP:

“On 4^th February Thames Valley MPs joined a cross-party delegation of South East MPs to protest to the Home Secretary about the aggressive tactics adopted by the Metropolitan Police in poaching over 1,000 fully-trained police officers from the surrounding forces over the last five years. Now, Mr Johnson, you weren’t present at that meeting, but just two years ago you called, in a Commons debate, for more police for your South Oxfordshire constituency.”

“So the question is quite simple - do you support the Chief Constable of the Thames Valley and your colleagues in neighbouring constituencies in calling for steps to be taken to curb the loss of experienced police officers to the Met or have your priorities changed since your selection as Conservative Mayoral candidate last year?”

Boris Johnson dodged the question claiming that there were no problems with recruitment to police forces in or outside of London. This was later flatly denied by Len Duvall - Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority.